Friday, June 26, 2015

Well its been 9 days and im still loving every minute of it! My companions and I have already taught 5 lessons in Samoan! On monday we have to teach our lessons in Samoan without any notes or anything so that will be very interesting haha! I can pray and say a lot of things in Samoan now so thats awesome! Ive come to realize the gift of tongues is soo real! If any of you are wondering my schedule:

6:30 Wake up

7:00 Breakfast

7:40-12:00 Classroom (Samoan language)

12:10 LUNCH!!

12:55-5:00 Classroom (Gospel and Samoan)

5:10 DINNER!!

6:00-9:25 Personal and Companionship Study

And then till 10:30 we go play Uno or just mess around like 18 year olds do at our residence! haha

As you can see... we do A LOT of studying!!

I love my district! We all get along so well and it makes time fly by! There is 7 elders in my district including myself! these are some of the funniest guys I have ever been around!

We had a devotional this sunday by Elder Nash of the seventy and he talked a lot about how we can teach about the plan of salvation to our investigators. At the end he told us to "Dont hold back from the lord! Give him everything you've got! No regrets!" It motivated me sooo much. I wanted to just get up and walk to Samoa haha!

So this week on Wednesday, 120 new mission presidents came in for training so everything has been so hectic! Most of the apostles and all of the first presidency have been here. My campions and I were asked to pass the sacrament to all the mission presidents and the apostles and the first presidency for this sunday so I will be like 10 feet away from the prophet so that will be the coolest thing of my life!

We had some mission presidents that were going to Mississippi in training come teach us yesterday. It was reall cool because they had us do a lot of role plays and it really help us to learn how to teach from the spirit!

I feel like everywhere you go here you feel the spirit and it almost makes you never want to leave the MTC!

Being here has made me understand the scriptures soo much more and to learn how to make them apply more to my life and I have learned so much about the gospel that I know without a doubt this is the true gospel and that when we ever have doubt or trials we need to turn to our heavenly father and he will help us! When in doubt, Pray it out! I know this is the place I need to be and that I wouldnt want to be anywhere else!

The MTC food is still pretty dang good! We have had steak and shrimp and stuff like that! Every friday night is Papa Johns pizza so thats another great thing about P days! and we had Subway for lunch yesterday!!!

We went to the temple this morning at 6 to do initiatories this morning and it is the best way to start the morning! It will be closed for cleaning for the next 3 fridays so that sucks! but I guess more time to do laundry and email haha!

Thank you guys for all the Dear Elder letters! Its awesome to get something in the mail throughout the week so Fa'fetai! (Thank you)

I love and miss you guys! Thank you for all your support and I will talk to you next friday!

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Well like everyone told me... This is so far the hardest thing I have ever done! The MTC is just all repetition so it gets just a little boring sometimes but I mean I still Love it!

The Samoan language is coming along so that's so good! We already memorized a prayer so we can pray in Samoan! So no joke mom I read the letter you sent me all the time! It brings me comfort I guess you could say:) Feel free to send some more!:)

Well tell the kids I love them and miss them a lot! Tell them to enjoy sleeping in! Haha!

The food here is really good so that is awesome! Like we've had Papa Johns and steak! and it was really good!

I miss you guys so much and well I guess you could say I am homesick! Everyone's advice of taking it one day at a time has really helped me and also turning to my Heavenly Father has given me so much comfort! I love you guys and miss you guys so much and you guys are in my prayers!

Love, Elder Fawson

P.S. Does Blake like my phone?:) haha!

P.S.S. Could you please get me some more of the CTR socks from Holmes Clothing:)

Friday, June 19, 2015

We got the best surprise today! Tyler's P-day in the MTC is on Friday! We didn't think we would hear from him until Monday. So happy to hear he is doing great! So proud! Here is his letter and first pictures!

Talofa Everyone!

Well all I can say is i love the MTC!! It is seriously the hardest thing ive ever done saying goodbye to my family for 2 years but I turned around and i have 2 companions that i already love. Elder Barclay from Paul Idaho and Elder Fenger from Anaheim California! They are 2 way cool elders and its nice because we all came in at the same time so we are all new and dont know what to do! haha but anyway I walked in the MTC and they gave me a yellow packet with my nametags and then the elder took me to my room and i put my stuff down and he took me right to my Samoan language class. Theres 5 elders and 4 sisters in there and we were all new so we had no idea what was being said because our teacher did not speak a lick of english the first 3 hours! I have come to realize that the gift of tongues is soo real because after 2 days of learning it we can speak some of it and we teach an investigator tonight in only Samoan! Its crazy how strong the spirit is here! We had a district meeting last night and i have never felt the spirit so strong before. Our branch president is the coolest guy and he really taught me and made me realize why I am on a mission. Read 3 Nephi 5:13. I was really struggling yesturday with not having my family around and i really wanted to just cry but ive learned that if i turn to my heavenly father he can give me strength to do what i need to do. One of the missionaries in our district didnt have his endowments yet because he was from an island by the marshal islands and today we went to the temple and did a session with him and i can honestly say that i felt so much comfort as i walked out the temple doors and I now know why I am on a mission. Well I miss all of you guys and know that your all in my prayers! Love you guys. I will send some pictures as soon as I can!